Royal Park is the largest of Melbourne's inner city parks (). It is located north of the Melbourne CBD, in Victoria, Australia, in the suburb of Parkville.
Many sporting facilities are provided including the North Park Tennis Club, Royal Park Golf Course, football and soccer ovals, baseball and cricket pitches, State Netball & Hockey Centre, and cycling and walking paths. On the corner of Gatehouse Street and Royal Parade there is a native garden. There are wide vistas of grassland and lightly timbered areas with eucalypts, casuarina, and acacias. The Melbourne City Council administers the park and instituted in 1984 a park management plan. A wetlands area was developed in 2005.
The grassy hill between the Royal Children's Hospital and the Native Garden is ideal for kite flying during the day. Over the summer months, members of the Astronomical Society of Victoria set up telescopes and conduct evening talks and tours of the night sky from this vantage point.
Wildlife
The park is home to many native animals such as possums, and a rich variety of birdlife which includes: Pacific black duck, chestnut teal, white-faced heron, brown goshawk, collared sparrowhawk, Horsfield's bronze cuckoo, Australian hobby, galah, red-rumped parrot, eastern rosella, superb fairy-wren, white-plumed honeyeater, spotted pardalote, white-browed scrubwren, grey fantail and red-browed finch.
The park is home to a regionally significant population of White's skink (Egernia whitii) and a section of habitat is maintained specifically for this species.
History
In the early years of European settlement Wurundjeri campfires were sometimes seen in the vicinity of Royal Park, although the Yarra people generally preferred camping beside the Yarra River or Merri Creek.
Governor Charles La Trobe set aside in 1850 a reservation of for parkland and open space. In 1852, parts of this were sold to become part of the new suburbs of Carlton and North Melbourne. Also that year, some of the land become the Melbourne General Cemetery. 1853 saw part of the reserve become the home of the University of Melbourne.
In May 1854, a reserve of was ‘reserved for public uses within the Colony of Victoria’, named "Royal Park". In April 1858, 142 acres of the Park's north-western corner became an experimental farm. This site later become an orphanage, a homeless refuge, a nursing home, a geriatric rehabilitation facility, and finally a general rehabilitation hospital. It also became the home of CSL in 1919, a year after it was founded.
The reserve was further reduced to when the rapid increase of population from the Victorian gold rush, led to creation of the suburb of Parkville. A housing estate commenced sales in 1861 at what is now "Parkville South". In 1868 further excisions from Royal Park were made for housing estates at "Parkville North" along Royal Parade and "Parkville West" near Flemington Road. Parkville South was expanded in 1875.
In 1861 Melbourne Zoo was allocated . Further excisions followed for roads, Upfield railway line (1884), Melbourne Zoo horse tramline (1890), Royal Park psychiatric facility (1907), West Coburg electric tramline (1925), University High School (1929), Camp Pell (1942), Royal Melbourne Hospital (1944), Royal Children's Hospital (1957, and returned to parkland in 2013), Royal Dental Hospital (1963), Melbourne Sports Centre – Parkville (2001), and a relocated Royal Children's Hospital (2007).
In 1860 the Burke and Wills expedition set out from Royal Park to cross Australia from south to north. They perished on the return journey. A cairn now marks the departure point of their expedition in Royal Park.
The park was used for military encampments during World War One and Two, with Camp Pell being used by United States forces during the Second World War. After the war, the permanent buildings of Camp Pell were used for emergency housing accommodation until 1960. As of 2005, the one existing building from Camp Pell is used as an 'Urban Camp' to provide accommodation for rural school children and other groups when visiting Melbourne.
The Royal Park Master Plan Design Competition
Following many years of agitation by resident groups and various failed planning attempts, the Melbourne City Council held a design competition in 1984, judged by representatives of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects, Royal Australian Institute of Parks and Recreation, Melbourne University's School of Environmental Planning, and the Melbourne City Council.